'Lost Boys' find calling

War refugees return to Sudan to aid villages, themselves

November 23, 2009|By Margaret Ramirez, Tribune reporter

After he fled Sudan's civil war in the 1980s, Garang Mayuol knew in his heart that he would return.

About 3,800 young Sudanese men known as "Lost Boys" came to the United States in 2001, including Mayuol and 124 others who settled in the Chicago area. Rising from refugees to American citizens who were attaining education and success, the Lost Boys became international icons of war and survival.

Resettlement efforts scattered them across the country, but Mayuol, a 27-year-old Wheaton resident, maintained close contact with two friends he had lived with in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. All three were determined to return someday to their villages.

In the summer of 2007, the former Lost Boys -- Mayuol, Gabriel Bol Deng and Koor Garang -- did travel back to Sudan for the first time in 20 years, on an unforgettable journey that reopened wounds of the past and provided new vision for the future. They form part of a new movement of Lost Boys who have returned to their country to help rebuild, finding that a highly publicized peace agreement failed to alleviate poverty and suffering.

A new documentary by Seattle filmmaker Jen Marlowe, "Rebuilding Hope," chronicles their trip back to their homeland and sheds light on the current struggle for stability in southern Sudan. While several documentaries have been made about the Lost Boys' lives in America, "Rebuilding Hope" is one of the first to document their return home.

"There is no more shooting. But nothing else has changed," Mayuol said. "There is still a lot of suffering. People are dying of hunger. There is disease and no medication."

Deng and Garang went to Sudan with clear goals on what they sought to accomplish. Deng, of Syracuse, N.Y., plans to build a school in Ariang, his childhood village. Garang, who became a nurse in Tucson, Ariz., focused on health care and arrived with medical supplies and mosquito nets. In January 2008, he returned to treat patients and train staff at a clinic in the town of Akon.

Mayuol was uncertain of his purpose, so he spoke to elders in his village of Lang and found the most pressing need was clean water. In February, with $12,000 raised from Chicago churches and schools, Mayuol traveled to Sudan and oversaw drilling of six wells that currently provide water for 20,000 people. He continues speaking to raise more funds for wells in other villages.

"I was unsure what to do," Mayuol said. "Should I build a school as Gabriel was building? Should I build a clinic so I can bring medication like Koor?

"But the most important thing that I saw is that they didn't have clean drinking water. ... People were dying from cholera and other water-borne diseases."

Through the film, the men hope to educate the public about the situation in Sudan and build support for their projects: the wells, the school and the clinic. The film has been shown in Syracuse, Tucson and Chicago. Screenings are being planned at Northwestern University and other colleges. On Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day, the "Rebuilding Hope" DVD will be available for purchase (RebuildingHopeSudan.org), and in March, the film will be shown at the Paris International Human Rights Film Festival.

Recalling the 2007 trip, Mayuol said the most emotional moment was seeing his mother again.

"She was so thin, so weak. I was happy to see her, but sad to see how she had suffered," he said.

His experience provides a powerful metaphor for the Lost Boys' homecoming. It was an emotional odyssey filled with joy at seeing their families again, yet heartache and pain at the hunger and desperation that remains in their villages.

After two decades of civil war that killed 2.2 million people in south Sudan, a peace agreement was signed in 2005 that ended fighting between the mostly Christian Sudan People's Liberation Army and the Arab Muslims who control the government. But the peace agreement did not include the western region of Darfur, where conflicts still rage. Economic inequities persist, and ethnic tension between Arabs and blacks continue.

"In many ways, the stories of these three men are vehicles for the larger story of what is happening in south Sudan right now," said Marlowe, the documentary filmmaker. "There is also the universal theme of home and family and community and what does it mean to be in between these two communities and how can you use the resources that you have to contribute to a community at home."

Mayuol's father died in the war, and when he fled the violence, he was unsure if he would ever see his family again. He came to Chicago when he was 19 and found work at UPS. Eventually, he enrolled at the College of DuPage and earned an associate's degree in business. He is continuing his studies at Benedictine University, working toward a degree in business management.

Although his priority is helping his people in Sudan, Mayuol said he hopes his personal story of struggle inspires others to become active in their communities.

"We need to teach young people: Go to school and do something for someone else. You can change people's lives," he said. "It doesn't have to be Sudan. It can be anywhere."